John Selig joined the Department of Human Services in 1988 as a special assistant to the director. He left the agency for two years in 1994 to work at the Department of Health before returning to DHS as the director of Behavioral Health Services. He was named director by Gov. Mike Huckabee in 2005.

Dawn Stehle has been named the state's Medicaid director. She will have the interim tag taken off her title, a distinction she's held since June 1. The Arkansas Department of Human Services conducted a national search for the spot.

Adding dental and vision coverage to Arkansas' compromise Medicaid expansion would cost nearly $43 million, according to a report released Thursday, but state officials said they're not looking at expanding the program's benefits.

The Arkansas Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas is sharing a report with members today that says businesses in Arkansas will face $27 million to $40 million in tax increases if the Legislature doesn't renew the "private option."

The state Department of Human Services says more than 55,000 low-income Arkansans have said they want to sign up for coverage under a recently approved plan to use federal Medicaid funds to purchase private insurance.

Republican legislators who had resisted expanding Medicaid in Arkansas say they're encouraged by a new plan that would allow funds from the federal-state program to purchase private insurance for the newly eligible, but say they need more details on how such a system would work.

Arkansas legislative leaders said Thursday that they need more information about the flexibility the state will have if it expands Medicaid and better figures on how much of a shortfall the program faces.

Arkansas Republicans denounced "Obamacare" during this year's election campaign and called for its repeal. But now that they've won control of the Legislature for the first time in 138 years, GOP lawmakers are considering expanding government health care in Arkansas.

Arkansas would stop paying for thousands of seniors in nursing homes, eliminate an insurance program for low-income workers and cut rates for providers to fill a $138 million shortfall in the state's Medicaid program, even if lawmakers support a proposal to boost funding, an official says Tuesday.

Arkansas officials say the state is moving forward with implementing parts of the federal health care law after an election that provided clarity on the federal level but uncertainty in the state Legislature about the political future of the controversial legislation.

One of the biggest impacts of the Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act is to give states the option of offering Medicaid coverage to those with the lowest incomes. In Arkansas, that would mean providing much-needed access to care for about 250,000 mostly working adults.